Judge Allows Couple to Visit Russian Girls, Paving Way for Reunion

Judge Allows Couple to Visit Russian Girls, Paving Way for Reunion

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

After seven months of forced separation from the two girls they adopted in Russia and were then accused of abusing on the flight home, an Arizona couple has been told that they can begin gradually spending more time alone with the children and be reunited with them at the end of March.

The couple, Richard and Karen Thorne, adopted the two girls in May from a Russian orphanage and spent only a few days with them before flying to New York. On the flight, passengers and flight attendants accused them of slapping and verbally abusing the girls, who were crying and screaming. The couple were arrested when the plane landed at Kennedy International Airport.

The girls, now 5, were taken away from them and put in foster care, and have lived in five foster homes since they arrived in the United States, an unforeseen odyssey that has been severely criticized by child-welfare experts.

A Queens judge ruled yesterday that the girls could begin unsupervised weekend visits with the Thornes for five hours a day, starting this weekend. The girls can also begin staying overnight with the Thornes on Jan. 17, the judge said, but Mrs. Thorne's parents or brother or sister-in-law must be present.

The judge, Joseph M. Lauria of Family Court in Queens, said that if all goes well, the girls and the parents could begin living together as a family after a court hearing March 27, when he is to make a final determination on the girls' custody.

But he cautioned that psychiatric evaluations of the parents ''raise a great deal of questions'' about their ability to control themselves, and he ordered the Thornes to undergo psychotherapy individually and family therapy with the girls.

He said later that he was referring to their anger, frustration and lack of patience, and that they had to learn to ''channel'' their feelings in a positive way.

''You've got to rise above the problems and behave yourself where it involves these children,'' Judge Lauria instructed the Thornes from the bench.

Still, he said, ''This is not a test.'' Rather, he said, it is part of the long-term plan to allow the girls to feel comfortable with the Thornes so that they can all live together. ''It was always the plan to unite -- I won't say re-unite,'' he said, since they have never really been together.

The Thornes grinned broadly as the judge spoke. ''We're very happy,'' Mrs. Thorne said after the brief hearing. ''We can't wait to get home.''

While newly adopted children are often distraught on the plane trip home -- in adoption circles it is called ''the flight from hell'' -- the Thornes are the only adoptive parents to have been arrested once the plane has landed.

Their case has prompted Russia, which is now the greatest source of adopted children for Americans, to consider restricting out-of-country adoptions; in the United States, the case has triggered a concern about the health of children from Russian orphanages.

After months of testimony, Judge Lauria ruled in October that the Thornes had used ''excessive force'' on the girls on the flight from Moscow, and found them guilty of six counts of neglect. He also called them liars.

The Thornes, who operate a warehouse distribution business in Phoenix, still face charges in criminal court of assault, harassment and endangering the welfare of the children. Those charges are to be heard Jan. 20, but the Thornes' criminal lawyer, Harold Levy, said yesterday that he would seek to postpone them -- and ultimately have them dismissed.

The girls are living now with Mrs. Thorne's brother in Phoenix, where Mr. and Mrs. Thorne can visit them, but only under supervision.

Emanuel Saidlower, the Legal Aid lawyer who represents the children, said yesterday that he was satisfied with the judge's ruling. He did not try to block the unification, as he has in the past.

Mr. Saidlower said that the situation appeared to have stabilized, especially now that the girls speak some English and are taking special education classes.

''There are no warning signs that would contraindicate the plan,'' he told the court.

However, he quoted Margot Matthews, the administrative director of the Hand-in-Hand adoption agency in Mesa, Ariz., which arranged the adoption, as saying that problems were lurking down the road.

''She said there is likely to be a honeymoon period and then significant adjustment problems,'' Mr. Saidlower said.

Ms. Matthews, who could not be reached by telephone yesterday, has said in the past that she expected the girls to have difficulties ''attaching'' to the Thornes and trusting them, a frequent reaction of children who have been raised in orphanages, as these girls were.